Droid 2 to Launch, Increasing Star Wars Connection with Limited Edition

Droids to the left of us, Droids to the right. These . . . are the Droids you're looking for?

Yikes, but it seems that a major new Android smartphone pops up just about every week. This week it's the Motorola Droid 2, set to go on sale from Verizon tomorrow. This is the follow up to the original Droid that launched last November and pretty much kicked off the Droid frenzy. The Droid 2 is in some ways not as powerful as the Droid X that came out last month—and unexpectedly sold out everywhere—but it will be the first Droid to come natively with the Android OS 2.2 "Froyo."

The Droid 2 is the first Droid since last year's younger sibling to feature the slide out full QWERTY keyboard, which is a pretty nice selling point. And for anyone who complained that the original Droid's keyboard was too hard to use, this one has been redesigned with raised keys. The screen size is the same as last year's model (which is smaller than the Droid X), but Motorola is reporting increased battery life. In fact, the Droid 2 appears to have dramatically longer battery life than the Droid X, with a reported 315 hours of standby time or 575 minutes of continuous usage compared to 220 hours or 480 minutes for the X.

In a previous post, I mentioned that Droid is a trademark of Lucasfilm, and you'll see that every Droid advertisement has to mention that fact somewhere in the small print. Well, apparently, Motorola and Verizon are now stepping up that Star Wars relationship and releasing a special edition of the Droid 2: the Droid R2-D2. On the teaser site that went up this week, it's billed as a "Star Wars Empire Strikes Back Special Edition Phone." Although no hard info is posted, you can surmise that the phone will include Star Wars sounds, Empire wallpapers, possibly even special apps and widgets. Sounds exciting, and this one will certainly sell out fast. You can sign up for email updates about pricing and availability, or follow @DroidLanding on Twitter for updates.

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